Mayonnaise can't hurt you. People can (with mayonnaise).

Mayonnaise made at home: egg, lemon juice, oil, salt. Mustard, garlic to taste.

In Europe good mayonnaise comes in aluminum tubes, but let’s say you’re in New York City. Take the Metro North from Grand Central Station (sit on the left for a view of the Hudson). Disembark at Beacon, walk 10 minutes southeast to the museum Dia Beacon, purchase tickets, enter, and wander to your right. You’ll soon find a gallery containing 22 works by Robert Ryman.

You’ll see people breezing through this particular gallery, but take your time.

Ryman’s medium is white paint. These are works that don’t work on a screen. You need to see how the light hits the paint, how the linen surface underneath plays against the strokes of white oil paint here compared to the white acrylic and fiberplate interplay there.

“What is done with paint is the essence of all painting,” he once said. “What painting is, is exactly what people see.”

To view these works is an exercise in observing. You can learn a good deal just by standing here, watching the light change. What does it mean? It means that it’s paint on a surface. The point is to look, without preconception or fear.

Mayonnaise is judged unfairly by victims of the “cooks” who abuse it. Maybe you already understand this. If not, I am so sorry.

I never liked mayo, I’ll admit, until I lived in New Orleans, where it slathers sandwiches as a sacrament. All manner of sandwich purveyors, from 24-hour gas stations to media darlings like Turkey and the Wolf, would make anyone a convert who but opens their mouth and bites.

Nobody really dislikes the word “moist.”

It’s been said that a good, end-of-summer tomato, good mayo (homemade, ideally), and a sprinkling of good salt on good toast is as good a sandwich as one can have. “Good” is key, clearly.

In Europe good mayonnaise comes in aluminum tubes. At any given grocery in the States, where it’s so long been confined to glass jars that invite overuse, you can now find the condiment in plastic squeeze bottles. Aluminum tubes are available from grocers carrying European imports.

The squeeze allows for precision application, insurance from any over-application that can result when you’re spooning the stuff from a jar.

I’ll say this:

1. Go to your local bakery and purchase a loaf of good bread.

2. Find a market with good produce. If tomatoes are in season, find a ripe and juicy one, full of sunlight. If out of season (it’s winter) root vegetables, roasted tender, will do nicely.

3. Toast the bread. Apply mayonnaise. Apply tomato (or other vegetable). Sprinkle salt (the big crystals). Crack pepper, if you like.

4. Indulge. Let it reflect the light in those vegetables across your palate.

Today’s Lunch may or may not have been sponsored by United Egg Producers.

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